1. CU PULL BACK TO SV Thai soldier with captured Vietnamese gasmask, helmet and other items (2 shots) 0.12
2. SV Thai soldiers firing mortar at Vietnamese positions 0.17
3. GV PAN Long line of refugees on road with possessions (3 shots) 1.00
4. GV & SV Thai troops assembling around military vehicles (2 shots) 1.18
5. SV Thai mortar position at Surin, near Sihanoukville 1.23
6. SV PULL BACK TO GV Troops getting into trucks 1.28
7. GV PAN Thai tanks 1.47
8. SV INTERIOR PAN Injured Thai soldiers being treated at field hospital 1.59
9. SV PULL BACK TO GV EXTERIOR Wounded refugees at roadside being attended to 2.19
10. GV Thai Army Chief, General Arthit Kamlang-Ek arrives 2.40
InitialsSH/BB


Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: SURIN, NEAR SIHANOUKVILLE THAILAND/THAI KAMPUCHEA BORDER

Thai troops repelled a Vietnamese thrust across the Kampuchean border on April 3 after two days of fierce fighting. Vietnam's latest anti-guerrilla drive began on March 31 with a major assault on a Khmer Rouge base at Phnom Chat, near Phnom Pra, a mountain straddling the Thai-Kampuchea border. As a result of this assault, some 15,000 Kampuchean who lived at the base and in nearby settlements were forced to flee into Thailand. The ???newed artillery exchanges followed a Vietnamese incursion about two kilometres (1 mile) into Thai territory on April 2, in which five Thai soldiers were killed and at least 10 wounded in shelling and hand-to-hand fighting. Thai Army Chief Arthit Kamlang-Ek said his forces drove about 100 Vietnamese troops back into Kampuchea. Officials said fierce fighting was continuing in the area, and Vietnamese forces had also started shelling a guerrilla camp about 200 kilometres (120 miles) to the northeast. Vietnamese forces entered Kampuchea four years ago to install Heng Samrin in place of the Khmer Rouge. Since then, the Khmer Rouge have tried to regain power by fighting in loose alliance with non-communist groups loyal to former Kampuchean leaders Prince Norodom Sihanouk and Mr. Son Sann. Son Sann, who with Prince Sihanouk and the Khmer Rouge has formed a Kampuchean government-in-exile recognised by the United Nations, told reporters that Hanoi was determined to wipe out his guerrillas during the current offensive. He appealed to the West not to stand by idly while Vietnam threatened all Southeast Asia. Officials fear the civilian death toll from the recent fighting could exceed 200.

Source: CHANNEL 7 BANGKOK